When medical devices or medical instruments are allowed to be in contact with patients, they are always exposed to the risk of infection. Particularly, medical kits inserted into the human body are in direct contact with tissues in vivo or body fluid, thereby increasing the risk of infection. To reduce the risk of infection, there has been an attempt to introduce an anti-infectious agent to medical kits.
Typically, there have been commercially available products formulated into mouth cleaners or toothpastes using the antimicrobial effect of triclosan. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 7,513,093 discloses antimicrobial suture thread obtained by coating suture thread for surgery with triclosan. More particularly, a triclosan antimicrobial agent is mixed with a solvent, and then the surface of suture thread is coated with the resultant mixture to provide the surface with a triclosan antimicrobial agent.
However, it is required to introduce an antimicrobial agent to medical kits in an amount sufficient to maintain the anti-infectious effect for a sufficient period of time during which the medical kits are used. Such an amount of antimicrobial agent may adversely affect the surface properties of the medical kits or may exhibit cytotoxicity in addition to the antimicrobial effect. In addition, it is required for the medical kits including an anti-infectious agent to maintain anti-infectious activity to a desired level during their use in vivo.
Therefore, there has been a need for developing technology of maintaining antimicrobial activity for a long period of time by introducing an adequate amount of antimicrobial agent to medical kits while not adversely affecting the surface properties of the medical kits or exhibiting cytotoxicity.